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Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor, star of twenty six Carry On films and notable radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as a witty raconteur on a wide range of subjects.
The son of barber Charles Williams, he was educated at Lyulph Stanley School. His relationship with his parents—he adored his vivacious mother, Louisa ("Lou"), but hated his morose and selfish father—was key to the development of his personality. Williams became an apprentice draughtsman to a mapmaker and joined the army aged 18. He was part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay when he had his first experience of performing on stage with Combined Services Entertainment along with Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols.
After the war, his career began with a number of roles in repertory theatre, but few serious parts were to lend themselves to his style of delivery. His failure to become established as a serious dramatic actor would disappoint him, but it was his potential as a comic performer that gave him his big break. He was spotted playing the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw`s St Joan in 1954 by the radio producer Dennis Main Wilson, who was casting Hancock`s Half Hour. He would lend his distinctive voice and amazing vocal talent to the radio series to almost the end of its run, five years later. His nasal, whiny, camp-cockney inflections (epitomised in his famous "Stop messing about..." catchphrase) would endure in popular lore for many years.
When Hancock tired (or grew envious) of him, Williams joined Kenneth Horne in the series Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–1968). In the latter, his roles included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; The Amazing Proudbasket, human cannonball; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, professional telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the extremely camp couple, Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick), notable for their double entendres and use of the underground gay slang, Polari.

Williams appeared in a series of West End revues including Share My Lettuce with Maggie Smith and written by Bamber Gascoigne, and Pieces of Eight, which included sketch material from Peter Cook who was still a student at Cambridge University. The revue included a number of Cook sketches such as One Leg Too Few that would become classics and also starred Fenella Fielding. Williams` last revue was One over the Eight, in which he starred with Sheila Hancock. Williams later starred opposite Jennie Linden in the stage hit My Fat Friend in 1972. He also appeared with Ingrid Bergman in a highly successful stage production of George Bernard Shaw`s Captain Brassbound`s Conversion in 1971.
Williams worked extensively in television and British films, most famously the Carry On series with its very British "nudge nudge" double entendre-laced humour, but for which he along with the rest of the cast were very poorly paid. Williams` diaries claimed he earned more in a British Gas commercial than he did out of the entire Carry On series put together—although that might only be considered true if one adds in the considerable fee he earned from the highly successful spin-off cartoon series Willo the Wisp (taken up by the BBC rather than the commercial TV network). Despite making a good living in his later years, he lived in a series of small flats in north London, the best known location being the now demolished

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